Lusher halts its renaming process after threat of Open Meetings Law litigation, The Lens reports

The Lusher Charter School board suspended its renaming effort after an attorney for a group of Lusher parents, alumni and students warned of pending litigation over alleged violations of the state’s Open Meetings Law, The Lens has reported. The board had formed a study group that met privately to come up with names to replace that of Robert Mills Lusher, an avowed segregationist and Confederate official, but received public pushback on the recommended names at a recent board meeting, where board members voted to form another study group.

The Lens: School Board moves forward with plan to swap McDonogh 7 for former dump site

The Orleans Parish School Board announced Tuesday it will move forward with its plans to trade the historic McDonogh 7 school in the Touro neighborhood for land atop the former Silver City dump for use as athletic fields for Booker T. Washington High School, Marta Jewson reports in The Lens. McDonogh 7’s school’s current occupant, the upper grades of Audubon Charter School, is set to leave after the 2020-21 school year, and the board had declared the building surplus property. The Touro Bouligny Neighborhood Association has a pending lawsuit against the district, contending in part that it can’t declare a building surplus property while it’s occupied.  

The Lens: Bathroom plumbing is latest problem for Harney elementary school in Central City

Students at the soon-to-be-shuttered Edgar P. Harney elementary school had to use outside trailers as bathrooms this week as workers fixed a dislodged drainage pipe beneath the school, Marta Jewson reported in The Lens,  describing just the latest in a series of challenges the Central City school has faced.Harney is one of five schools set to close at the end of the year, after it racked up violation notices citing financial problems, failing to serve special education students and improperly withholding among from employees’ retirement funds, Jewson reports.